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MEMBER DIARY

Nailing the Black Vote – Or not

I’m not all that convinced that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is a useful organization. As a matter of fact, I’ve come to think of the NAACP as a breeding ground for misguided militants who might as well join the New Black Panther Party. If you’re looking to amplify racial issues, and I think the NAACP is, you might as well join an effective militant group.

The NAACP, like labor unions, was once a good and necessary effort. During the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, there were wars for our black brothers and sisters to win. Those wars were essentially won when the Civil Rights Act of 1965 became law. Of course there are still inequities. There always will be. There is no way to guarantee any group of humans eternal equality.

As a woman, I try always to be mindful of the fact that we females were only set free from our masters – our fathers, brothers and husbands – less than a century ago long years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Our suffrage came just a few decades before the voting rights were finally secured for our black sisters.

Today, women still struggle against the glass ceiling and, as I type this, are victims of the Obama Administration’s reckless and deadly economic policies which have left more women than men out of work and languishing in poverty. (I don’t understand why the NAACP doesn’t seem to catch on to the fact that black citizens of this nation are also disproportionally afflicted in terms of unemployment and poverty under this administration. Somehow poverty must be more palatable when it is visited upon you by one of similar pigmentation.)

I believe the NAACP has become little more than a social club for cranky black rebels who choose not to play by societal rules. You’d never see somebody like former Secretary of State and possible Vice Presidential pick Condoleezza Rice whining about her victimhood. Why? Because, even though the NAACP might call her an Aunt Jimima, she has worked diligently and succeeded within the system and, in so doing, has risen to dizzying career heights.

This week’s NAACP convention in Houston had the courtesy of affording Republican nominee Mitt Romney an opportunity to speak his piece which he did with dignity and integrity. He didn’t change the message or the language in which it was delivered.

For the most part Romney was treated politely. Yes. There were boos and I certainly didn’t see any Mitt Romney t-shirts in the crowd, but that’s all part of the deal when you’re a politician. There was also a standing ovation – something not enjoyed by the President of the United States primarily because the first black President blew off his core constituency in his arrogant assurance that he has the black vote nailed.

Maybe. Maybe not.

Barack Obama and his campaign captains hope that the “you’re being mistreated” message of the NAACP will remain loud and clear at least until November.

The drums of victimhood which are constantly beaten by militant groups such as the NAACP and the Black Panthers serve their memberships not at all. They only afflict young, black citizens with a permanently attached chip on their shoulders which forever holds them back. But, of course, if we could ever get beyond the swamp which sucks black youth down and under, there might be real equality which would put people like NAAP president Benjamin Jealous out of work.